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Topic: Chickenyard SILENCE (Read 2193 times)

Yesterday the strangest thing happened. The time was about 4:30 P.M. I was working outside near the bee pen weeding out a huge patch of chamomile that had self-seeded. It was like a lawn so thickly did it germinate. It actually would make a beautiful walkway if one wanted to make one of chamomile. The chickens, ducks and geese had been let out and were wandering all over the place. There is a movable chicken wire fence so that they cannot come into our part of the back. They love to go out there and eat bugs, slugs, grubs, worms, anything that they can eat, oh ya, weeds too. LOLL.

Suddenly Roquefort, the big white rooster started to make this huge call. It is like the call that he makes when he responds to a chicken that is proclaiming that she just laid an egg. He displays his pride to his world that an egg has been laid, just as loudly as does the hen herself.

This call was loud, he began to strut all over the place, looking around, calling and calling. The chickens all became silent. Not a sound.

Now this is strange because all I could hear was nothing. It is surprising when you spend so much time outside working, listening, how you can understand how much sound there actually is. This started to weird me out. There was no sound, not a single one. It was eerie, and I cannot stress how weird it sounds to hear NOTHING. Not a bird in the trees, not a chicken, not a duck. All the kids were inside the house watching a movie. Zero sound. Except Roquefort making his big rooster call, and man is it loud. Especially when there is no other sound. It reminds me of the old saying â€œthe calm before the stormâ€.

Then Roquefort became silent. He strutted all over the back, looking, guarding. And believe me, he sees everything, talk about eyes like a hawk. But that is another story I will get into another time.

This noiselessness carried on for about 15 minutes, no less. I continued working, being very aware of anything that I might hear also that could be danger. As much as Roquefort watched, walking around, I pulled weeds, listening, watching. We do live on a bear path, this is the time of year when they become active. The likelihood now of the bear coming onto our property at the back is remote. There has been so much clearing of the underbrush, but I never lay caution to that wind. The hens did not stop their sun bathing and fluffing in the dusty holes that they had dug, nor did they stop scratching the weed pile I had made for them. Life for the chickens and ducks carried on like nothing had happened. EXCEPT FOR THE SILENCE.

My sister came out of her house and was wondering where the geese were. We looked out towards the back and there they were, sunbathing in the sun. I told her to listen, "what do you hear". She listened. She said nothing. I said, well, how often around here do you hear nothing. She thought and listened for a minute. She said that is the wierdest thing because â€œnothingâ€ sounds very foreign. When you have farm birds, there is always noise, always, rarely do you hear nothing. I told her what had happened, how the rooster made his big call and the whole barnyard shut right up. I guess â€œnothingâ€ could be described as a noise in itself.

Now Roquefort began his silence. He did not make a sound. Suddenly there was a high pitched noise, the sound is undescribable, kind of like a whistle maybe. I was watching the rooster, it was coming from him. This sound he emited lasted for about 12 seconds or so. I knew it was him because I could see his mouth open. I have heard him make this sound on one other occasion, when he was alarmed. He emitted this sound 4 or 5 times at intervals of about 2 minutes apart. Maybe the sound could be described as an elongated call that I hear the hawks make.

The chickens carried on doing what they do, without noise.

Finally, I got up and threw another big bucket of weeds out for the chickens. I guess whatever had been the problem was gone. For now Roquefort came over to the pile and made his rooster sound that there was food and he showed the girls that there was good stuff in it. All the noises of the chickenyard commenced again. That happy hum of the girls enjoying their lovely little life in the warm warm sun.

I do not know what was around for such a long time that caused such a guarding action of our big white rooster. But he was doing his job, and he was in command of the entire yard of chickens, ducks and geese. He is the born leader and I am proud of him.

Have a wonderful, beautiful day, lots of good health. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Yes, complete silence can seem quite weird. We have a fully anechoic chamber (acoustic foam on all the walls, ceiling and floor, you are actually suspended on a high tension cable floor in the middle of the room) at work and when you go in there, you can actually hear your heart beat. :shock: Needless to say, your sanity starts to come into question if you stay in there too long :-P

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"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison

Robo, holy smokers!!! What on earth do you do for your livelihood. Sounds like something from outer space. loll. Best of this beautiful day, good health to all. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Many years ago I was fishing on the Bitterroot river in Montana. It was a joyous day w/ lots of cutthroat, brookies and one very nice vbrown trout. I took one of the brookies and cooked it up for lunch. I was by myself and I had been at it since about 9:30am and it was now about two. I fell asleep leaning aginst a rock w/ the stream about ten yrds away. I was awoken by dead silence. I know I'm in bear and cat territory as well as some wolves on the outside chance. I immediately stand up and for what felt like minutes, probably seconds, i finall heard a squirrel give a warning call. I turned toward the sound, and a medium sized black bear was eyeballing me from about 25yrds. I think he was a surprised as me as the wind was in my favor. I quickly left and coverd some distance when I realized he was following me. I walked another mile perhaps and he just left. But it was the silence that woke me. Yes I know the feeling.

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"The more complex the Mind, the Greater the need for the simplicity of Play".

Yes, complete silence can seem quite weird. We have a fully anechoic chamber (acoustic foam on all the walls, ceiling and floor, you are actually suspended on a high tension cable floor in the middle of the room) at work and when you go in there, you can actually hear your heart beat. :shock: Needless to say, your sanity starts to come into question if you stay in there too long :-P

Robo:

To show you how messed up as an individual I am. When IBM was in Boca Raton. I use to be a vendor for them doing token ring networks. I use to work in those anecholic chambers with the big pointed foam cones sticking out of the walls and ceiling. And yes you could hear your heart beat.

Here is the messed up part. I loved working in those rooms. You could give me a project that would take days and I was on it if it was there. Occasionally I would hold my breath a little just to accelerate my heart beat. Outside of that weirdness it was also where we did RF interference testing on components. There was some wild stuff that took place in those rooms. We had 50hz transformers for a bunch of equipment(The US standard for electrical AC circuits is 60 hertz (hz)). As an electrician that stuff was neat to work on.

Some of the other techs hated being in those rooms though. They were convinced I was nuts. I was convinced they were clasterphobic. Even though the rooms were large and I mean huge. They were start stressing out after a while.

Good times.

Sincerely,Brendhan

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The status is not quo. The world is a mess and I just need to rule it. Dr. Horrible

ok--just reading this gives me the creeps!i don't have the "no sound" experience just yet, but i do have some experience with being alone in the woods. man...it's fun to pick mushrooms and it's ok to cut wood, but man, when you stop to listen in" that's when i get all nervous, keep looking around me, darn...!

now...robo and understudy, i didn't catch it, why are those rooms for? you just say you work in them, but not why they're sound proof.

BTW, there's a joke around our electricionist, why USA has 60Hz instead of 50Hz(like Europe), coz the indians can see lights blinking at 50Hz and it's very disturbing for them :)

In my younger days when I spent too many hours in a computer room, I used to be able to walk into the room and know straight away if something was wrong.. the freakiest thing though was on the rare occasions when we did a complete power down..

We had some silence in our yard after the great poultry massacre of 2006. We lost all the chickens, ducks and the ever noisy guinea hens.

Man, this post is hardcore! Almost needs to be moved to "The Dark Side Of The Moon" section. The hair is standing up on my arms!

It's things like that why I pack a 45 Automatic Pistol with me when I'm in the woods. I remember camping with my grandfather when I was a little kid and near our tent was a pack of coyotes yipping and howling. I was scared to death. My grandpa said there was nothing to worry about. "When the coyotes are making noise they are no threat." hey says, "It's when they get silent, you should worry!"

Of course seconds later they are dead silent along with the rest of the woods, besides my grandpa's snores. I didn't sleep a wink that night.

That's why I now pack heat. Freaky stuff like that.

Another scary sensation is total darkness. I dont mean night time cause there's still ambient light. But complete black. I dropped my flashlight while cave exploring once. I had a backup in my pack but while I was trying to get it out I lost all direction, got confused and fell over. Weirdes thing I've ever felt.

Sean

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"My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste" - Proverbs 24:13

Now, isn't it funny what gives people the willies? I get weirded right out about the coyotes screaming. Others say that is a beautiful sound. Well, not for me. Even if I am laying in bed at night and I heard them roaming through the bushes, screaming, it keeps me awake. I cannot sleep until I no longer hear them. So fortunate they only can be heard for a few minutes, as they traverse to other spots. Ever heard a llama when it is scared? I'm doing another post on that one. Best of a beautiful and wonderful day, and to all good health. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Cindi you live in an area that the Indian legends said was frequented by SasQuatch. aka O' ot' ahila, or Bigfoot. The incident you discribe with the actions of the rooster and the absolute silence is what the Indians used to say portended a SasQuatch siting.

Didn't happen to see a 7-8 foot tall humanoid with long red hair and an odor worse than a billy goat did you?

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Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

Brian, nope, I didn't see that dude. I am sure that I would smell him first because there is nothing worse than a billy goat smell. The rooster commanded this out the back again yesterday when I was working on the rock pile, throwing a whole bunch more rocks on it. The rock pile is getting big.

I was ready to throw rocks at whatever the rooster was making his high pitched trill about. I'll keep my eye and nose out for the SasQuatch.

Our foster boys are always Aboriginal, some only a bit of this lineage. I wish that they would get more into their heritage, this is fascinating, the Indian legend stuff. Have a wonderful day, beautiful day, the sun is shinin'. Great health. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Sharon, that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, I know, I could feel it. Shivers along my back.

The strange things done in the midnight sun. We live in a weird world, full of weird stuff for sure. Have a wonderful life, beautiful day, sun is shinin', good health to all. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service